Communicators within wireless communication systems are often required to search for one or more base stations within the system during normal operation. Often, a communicator will need to search for a number of different base stations simultaneously. During a search, a quality measure (e.g., total received energy) is often determined for the corresponding base station. The quality measure may then be used, for example, to make a base station handoff decision. As can be appreciated, it is generally desirable that the quality measure be estimated as accurately as possible. It is also generally desirable that the search process be performed in an efficient manner.